Returning Projects
Fun and activity day
Ayo bermain bersama!!
On the 24th of April 2009 IT happened again: the second edition of the ‘Fun- and Activity Day’ of Sjaki-Tari-Us. A short summing up of the day: a warming-up with 150 children who were dancing and singing in the building. Then the whole group moved to the soccer field to play the 15 different games and after that back to the building to eat nasi bungkus together. Then it was time to sit down and watch a beautiful dance and drama performance of a group deaf child. We closed the day with all the 150 children and all 50 parents/teachers/crew dancing through the building, in on big line on the children’s songs played by the local reggae band.
In short, this second edition of the Fun and activity day was a huge success! It took a lot of hours preparation and care, but the result was fantastic!
Now a little more detailed report of this event. The last weeks we were all very busy with the preparations of the sport day. From inventing and preparing the games till handing out promotion posters and banners through whole Ubud. With the whole team we took care of:
- Handing out all the invitation to all the joining schools (always exciting moments because a promise to join can change here every day)
- inform as much tourist and locals as possible to be present at the day
- inform the press to report this all
- asking permission for using the soccer field (which was not so easy and costs a lot of running back- and forth and nervous moments before it was there)
- making the reggae band enthusiastic to play songs in the genre of children’s songs, which they would play at the warming-up and the closing of the day
- survival trips in Ubud and surroundings to collect bamboo for the sign boards of the games
- together with the teenagers preparing the stamp cards, filled the 300 water balloons, filled the balloons with sand, make markers from water bottles, make the sign board of the games etc.
- training our teenagers in baking cakes and French fries for the first start of the Sjaki-Warung
- make all the acquaintances and interested people enthusiast around Ubud, which resulted in finally 20 people who joined the sport day to help with the games, making a movie, taking care of fruit and water for the children etc.
- ask Wira, who is working at the radio, to be the voice over and host for the whole day
- Etc, etc, etc, etc……
And so I can go on and on for a long while in summing up all the things that happened the last months. But what I can still enjoy the most is to just relive the day and to remember all the things that happened on that Friday morning 24th of April in Ubud from 7 am till 1pm.
To start with the fact that the whole team of Sjaki-Tari-Us was present on the soccer field already at 7 am to prepare all the games. Three busses were then on their way to pick up all our children and teenagers. The band was doing the last sound check and slowly we saw all the people coming in to the building. Among them also a camera team from Gaurda TV and a reporter from the Jakarta Post!
Around 9 am all the children were in the building; Sjaki-Tari-Us children, SD-school (regular primary school), TK-school (pre school), SDLB (special school) and the Pelangi international school. Then it was time to start the program. After the opening speech from Sjaki-Tari-Us the first children’s songs were coming out of the sound system, enthusiastically played by the band. All the teachers of Sjaki-Tari-Us, together with the gym teacher of the primary school were standing in a line-up in front of the group and started the warming up. A very nice and successful start of the day! After the warming-up every child got his stamp card, which showed the 15 different picto’s of the games on the soccer field. And then all the children were allowed to enter the soccer field. Within the following hour all the children were busy playing the games and having fun with each other. It was one big tangle of laughing, playing and happy children/parents/teachers/crew. A couple of games were: skippy ball race, rice bag walking, water race, rope pulling, bottle fishing, penalty shooting and water balloon throwing. When you watch the pictures you will get a small impression of what was going on the soccer field during this day.
After an hour on the soccer field it was time to go back to the building, sweating and tired, but satisfied. All together we sat down on the ground to eat nasi bungkus (a package with rice, vegetables, meat and sambal wrapped in a paper), so no difficulties with going to tables, cutlery etc. After eating and drinking it was time for the special dance performance by the group of deaf children. A magnificent performance which everyone watched with wet eyes and their mouth open. We also got a little preview on their new drama performance, which was accompanied by the great commentary of Wira and the singer of the reggae band. After the performances it was time to end the day with a last session of children’s songs from the reggae band. The most impressing thing of the day was that we ended the music session with all the children, parents, teachers and the crew dancing together in one big line through the building. That was a great example of integration (what was off course besides having fun an important goal of the day). In this big line of all children there was no difference anymore between children with and children without a disability. At that moment we all were a big line of happy people!
Before the children went home, they got a whistle as a little present. After they received the whistle, this leaded to a very pure and beautiful ear-deafening concert of 150 whistles. And then it was really time to go home. Singing and laughing they all walked out of the door, already looking forward tot the third edition of the Fun- and Activity day of Sjaki-Tari-Us!
